Content Specifications for the Summative Assessment of the ...

Some assessment items/tasks will focus on reading one text, while others will require students to
compare, analyze, or integrate information from more than one text. Consistent with CCSS and the
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) recommendations, at grades 3-5, equal
assessment emphasis will be placed on reading both literary and informational texts. At grades 6-8,
assessment emphasis will shift to slightly more on informational texts (55%) than on literary texts
(45%). By high school, greater emphasis (70%) will placed on reading a range of informational texts,
including literary nonfiction. Texts chosen for assessment will represent a variety of genres and formats
for literary and informational texts. General guidelines will be developed during the test development
phase regarding text selection for the reading assessment items and tasks at each grade span.
Accessibility & Claim #1: This claim clarifies the importance of comprehending both literary/narrative
and informational/expository texts. It does not explicitly address the challenges that many students with
disabilities face in the areas of decoding and fluency. In contrast to a view where decoding and fluency
are gateways to comprehension, many successful adults with disabilities use alternative means of access
to text (including assistive technologies, such as text to speech) to bypass the need for decoding and
fluency when they comprehend and think critically about text. These individuals (Reitz, 2011)
demonstrate high levels of success working with both literary and informational texts. Because of the
importance of building skills in decoding and fluency in early schooling, the explication of the content
may be different in early school grades compared to later school grades. Thus, providing assistive
technologies such as speech to text may not be considered appropriate up through an intermediate-level
grade, say, 4 or 5. After that, the use of speech to text (or a human reader) is considered an appropriate
avenue of access to allow students to demonstrate that they are able to “read closely and critically to
comprehend a range of increasingly complex literary and informational texts.” This approach is
consistent with the CCSS document, which states that “for students with disabilities reading should
allow for the use of Braille, screen reader technology, or assistive devices…” (p. 6).
With respect to English learners and other test takers, it will be important to ensure that test items are
measuring students’ mastery of the intended knowledge and skills, uncontaminated by irrelevant factors,
such as language complexity unrelated to the focal construct being measured or language idioms or
cultural referents that may be obscure to new immigrants. Further, based on English language
proficiency, it will important to provide access for ELL students to items / tasks that are linguistically
accessible in all content areas, including English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies,
Science, and Technical Subjects, without altering the focal constructs.
About the “Summative Assessment Targets” that follow…
The following pages identify summative assessment targets that describe the evidence that will be used to support Claim
#1. Summative assessment targets do not replace the Common Core standards; rather, they reference specific standards at
each grade level that test developers will use to guide item and task development and collectively serve the purpose of
providing a consistent sampling plan for assessment within and across grades. All assessment targets will have some test
items, as determined by the test blueprints.
The targets that are provided are for grades 4, 8, and 11, serving as elementary, middle, and high school examples of the
targets that the Consortium will develop for grades 3-11. The summative assessment targets at each grade level represent the
prioritized content for assessment. Each assessment target is accompanied by the related standard(s) in the CCSS from which
it is drawn, and by the intended cognitive rigor/depth-of-knowledge (DOK) required by the assessment target.
Anchor Standard 1 in reading (and each grade specific version of this standard) underlies Reading Standards 2-9. It focuses
on students’ use of evidence to support their analyses (claims, conclusions, inferences) about texts. Hence, whether students
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